The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus having a function that displays an image in which the degree of focus on a photographic subject to be imaged is easily recognized visibly.
An imaging apparatus is known that displays an image of a photographic subject received by an image sensor on a display of a liquid crystal display (LCD), or the like, which can be visibly recognized by a user. The imaging apparatus has a function that displays a live image of a photographic subject on the display before shooting. This is generally referred to as a live view display function.
As for a focus operation of such an imaging apparatus, a manual operation and an automatic operation are known. The manual operation is called a manual focus (hereinafter, referred to as “MF”), and the automatic operation is called an autofocus (hereinafter, referred to as “AF”). For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication number H11-341331 discloses an imaging apparatus that magnifies a display and displays a larger image than would be displayed with a normal live view, when performing the MF and the AF. Additionally, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication number 2004-242009 discloses an imaging apparatus that displays an image in which a region that is most in focus in an image of a photographic subject displayed as a live view image is enlarged, when performing the MF.
When performing the AF and the MF, as a method of displaying an image that is displayed for confirming a degree of focus on an image of a photographic subject, in addition to the above-described enlarged display of a live view image, there are “a method of displaying an image of only an edge part of a photographic subject”, “a method of displaying an image in which an edge part is enhanced by an overlapped image of an image of an edge part of a photographic subject and a normal live view image”, and the like.
In imaging apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication number H11-341331 and Japanese Patent Application Publication number 2004-242009, by displaying an enlarged image, or the like when performing the AF and the MF, the degree of focus is easily confirmed. In fact, it is easy to confirm the degree of focus by displaying the enlarged image; however, it is difficult to confirm a composition and a state of an entire photographic subject by a live view image.